This invention relates to a packing and storing receptacle, particularly for knitting machine needles. The receptacle is of the type which has an essentially planar bottom wall and a top wall which is oriented essentially parallel to the bottom wall and which is connected to the bottom wall and defines therewith a receiving space for at least one needle packet. The receiving space has a removal opening at one end. The receptacle also has lateral guiding and positioning components for the needle packet situated in the receiving space.
Knitting machine needles of identical type are, as a rule, packaged in a side-by-side relationship to form small needle packets, each consisting of, for example, fifty needles. Conventionally, the needle packets are placed in small paper bags or envelopes which, in turn, are deposited in boxes delivered to the consumer. The introduction of the needle packets into the paper bags or envelopes is, on the one hand, uneconomical because it requires manual labor and, on the other hand, the removal of the needles by the consumer from the paper bags or envelopes is circumstantial and disadvantageous because after removing some needles, the remaining needles assume a random orientation in the pouch or envelope and thus the risks are high that they become entangled with one another.
German Patent 1,536,055 discloses a packing and dispensing receptacle for knitting machine needles that can be regarded as an improvement concerning the difficulties discussed above. The plastic receptacle disclosed in this patent--which may be considered as the starting point of the invention--has a bottom wall on which longitudinal sides, separating walls and an end wall are formed. The longitudinal sides, the bottom wall and the separating walls define needle compartments for receiving needle packets. The receptacle (housing) constructed in such a manner is open at that end which is opposite from the end wall. The needle compartments are closed by a top wall which is a cross-sectionally approximately U-shaped lid part formed of a flexible plastic component slidably received in grooves provided in the longitudinal side walls. The longitudinal sides and separating walls formed on the bottom wall as well as an upwardly bent, strip-like end piece formed on the top wall constitute lateral guiding and positioning components for the needle packets which are thus non-shiftably secured in the needle compartments.
For removing needles from such a prior art receptacle, the lid portion may be elastically bent away at its end so that the needles are exposed at their end and may be pulled out from the needle compartment through the removal opening provided at its end.
Such a multi-part plastic receptacle, however, is expensive to manufacture and is not readily adaptable for an automatic packaging of the knitting machine needles. It is a further disadvantage of this prior art construction that since the use of plastic material is a necessity, properly disposing of the empty plastic packaging receptacles poses an increasing problem and therefore the advisability to use such material is being questioned with increasing frequency.